Many Seacoast beaches and roads closed as high surf pounds the coast

Tuesday

Oct 30, 2012 at 3:15 AMOct 30, 2012 at 7:24 AM

By Andrea Bulfinchabulfinch@fosters.com

HAMPTON — As waves crashed along the Seacoast Monday, those looking to catch a glimpse of Hurricane Sandy were also cautioned about flooded roadways, high winds and dangerous conditions as officials urged people not to venture out into the storm.

Signs along Interstate Route 95 alerted drivers to be off the road by 3 p.m. Monday as that was the time officials expected the brunt of Sandy to strike the region.

Beaches and state parks along Route 1 from Rye to the Massachusetts border closed midday for the approaching storm.

Areas along Ocean Boulevard and in North Hampton have historically become impassable, according to North Hampton police, making travel dangerous as the storm surge continues to rise. People were discouraged from driving, standing or walking along the coastline there, activities that were still in full swing by early Monday evening.

Beaches in Rye were closing by noon Monday, according to a tweet sent by Rye police, who announced the beaches would remain closed for an undetermined amount of time.

The Salvation Army based out of Portland, Maine, issued a press release on Monday alerting residents of states expected to be affected by Hurricane Sandy of resources made available by the organization.

“We're taking Hurricane Sandy very seriously and are ready to move personnel to areas where they are most needed,” Major James LaBossiere, divisional commander, stated in the release.

Food, drinks, emergency and spiritual care will be provided to emergency responders and residents should the storm cause severe damage and power outages in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.

Martin Murray of Public Service of New Hampshire, said crews were on scene across the Seacoast to provide assistance to emergency personnel with downed wires and other obstructions, and would begin working on the outages as soon as it became safe to do so.

“We're expecting there will not be a lot of restoration at the height of the storm,” he said, stating that it simply wasn't safe at the time for PSNH employees to be conducting that work.

But, he said, today would likely provide an opportunity for crews to being working on restoration efforts and that PSNH was “very well prepared” with necessary resources.

“It looks like we'll be able to tackle (outages) on Tuesday or whenever the conditions allow us to,” Murray said.